Organizer of Lloydminster’s yellow vest rally, Charlie Medlicott, it planning a second one this weekend at 11 a.m. at city hall.
Medlicott says there’s been a good response from the previous rally and she’s been asked by many when the next one will be.
“We had a lot of community support. We had a lot of people walking up and joining the rally, coming down the street with signs. Everybody was asking, when is the next one?”
Originally she wasn’t looking to do another one until after Christmas but thinks the community has been so supportive that she wants to keep the momentum going.
Medlicott is bracing for lower numbers the weekend before Christmas, but she says she may be surprised.
“We might be down a few people compared to the first rally because a lot of people do take that weekend for travelling. Even with we have twenty people it doesn’t matter, we still wanna see people come out and we’re expecting a little bit lower numbers, but we could be surprised. We could have bigger numbers, too.”
Medlicott says some folks have put their travel plans aside in order to attend the upcoming rally.
She says while there are no set plans for anything in the new year, some are looking into what they need to do in order to hold a truck rally of their own in support of oil and gas.
“We gotta find out if we need permits and things like that, so we’ve got some people doing the legwork on that. We’re hoping by the middle of January or early January, when everyone is done with their holidays or kids are back to school, and it’s a bit better time to get things together. Gives us a bit more time to get things organized.”
Medlicott adds that the movement has grown beyond Alberta and that they’ll continue their demonstrations for as long as they have to.
“Until we can get a change in government or get something happening out here, we’ll be doing them as long as we have the support for them,” says Medlicott.
Medlicott is organizing a local chapter of the yellow vest movement through a Facebook group and looking ahead to more protesting in the new year.